Thoughts on Torah and the Jewish world today.

So Hamas blatantly uses the standard terrorist tactics of stealing aid and then using it only to feed thise who profess loyalty to them! So now Gazan’s have a choice, support Hamas or starve! This is ntohng new, though previously the UN liked to pretend it wasn’t happening; after all, if they admit that Hamas is nothing but a thieving terrorist organisation as willing to starve and kill Palestinians as they are willing to blow up Israeli citizens, then they would have a hard time demonising Israel for the heinous crime of defending itself against terrorist attacks!

The above neatly sums up the task that the IDF has on its hand. Defend Israeli lives, minimise the number of civilian casualties on the other side. Now in that statement there are two important factors:
1) the IDF represents ALL Israelis, all segments of Israeli society, be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Arab, Druse or anything else. Every citizen of Israel is protected by the IDF, just as every group in Israel has lost loved ones at the hands of the terrorists.
2) Minimising civilian casualties implies that no civilian casualties is going to be unlikely, if not impossible. The terrorists look for quick media wins, juicy pictures 9real or faked) that they can parade around to the news outlets who are only too willing to unceremoniously broadcast anything anti-Israel without casting a critical eye over its cntents. The simple reality is that as long as the terrorists are using women, children and everyone else as human shields- as mere fodder for their propaganda machine which requires as many bodies a spossible to feed their sickness, their will be civilian casualties.

Should the IDF show more restraint? Teh simple question would be how? Already Israel hampers military operations by pre-warning civilians via pamphlet droplets and SMS messages when they need to evacuate an area before they launch an operation. Militarily, they are making a tactical error, warning the enemy where they will be, giving up the element of surprise, allowing the terrorists to set-up ambushes or to move in, or remavoe all, their military units. No other country fights a war in this manner- yet the IDF takes the reduction in their tactical operations for a simple reason: ti minimise civilian casualties.

Of course, what the media loves to show, and what the world comments on is not the fact that Israel places additional risks on their soldiers for humanitarian reasons. Noe- what they are upset about is the fact that israeli has a better army than the palestinians! Since when does any army in war reduce its force to be proportional? any commander deliberately reducing his forces to make things proportional should be court martialled and chucked out of the armed forces for placing his troops at risk! The IDF is not going to reduce its capacity merely to be proportional- nor should they. In all probablity a “proportional” war would probably end up with even higher civilian casualties due to the increased amount house to house fighting that would result.

So, the IDF is doing an amazing job in an unenviable position- and it looks like they will unfortunately be called on to repeat this job on the near future. Rockets are coming from Gaza; Hamas and the other terrorist groups are trying to kill Israeli citizens again- and the IDF will once again be called on to their job and defend Israel. My hope? That when they go back in this time they hit harder and more decisively than they did last time. I hope, and pray that Gilad Shalit will be found and returned safely to his family. And most of all, I pray that the Palestinians caught in the crossfire between the terrorists dedicated to killing, and the IDF dedicated to protecting life, rise up, get rid of the terrorists that see them as nothing more than walking corpses to be used for propoganda. I pray for that day- because it is only then that we will finally be able to negotiate a true and lasting peace with two states, Israel and a Palestinian one, side by side!

About

For those interested to know about me (don’t you hate writing these things?) I live in Johannesburg South Africa. I have two kids who have enticed me into keeping a menagerie: many fish, a bearded dragon (who despite appearnces is a real sweetie!) and a couple of dogs

My religious life is full- I study daf yomi, try to study the parshas hashavua with peirush Rashi, peirush Ramban, Shnei luchos Habrit and I just recently purchased a Chumash HaGra. I am also working my way through Reishit Chochmah (struggling with this one- but its interesting even if it does take me reading everything 6 or 7 times to undertand it!) and Nefesh HaChaim. . I am also the spiritual leader for a small community in Johannesburg- I was appointed as a Reverend by the Rish Yeshivah and the Mashgiach at the Yeshivah where I study and I am recognised as such by the Beis Din. So Iam the Ba’al Korei, shalich tsibur and give a couple of shiurim a week- what can I say, they keep me busy!

To contact me privately: allonyoav at yahoo dot com (sorry for the long winded way, just trying to deter too many spam programmes picking it up.)

I can be found on twitter at Twitter– notification of posts here plus other occasional tidbits.

Hmm,and I wil try to get back to posting regularly- suggestions on topics would be welcomed or maybe I need to start writing out my Shabbos Droshas and posting those…